to knobblie or not?

[fireboomer]

Looking for som help / first hand experiences.

I have quite some experience with knobblies (T63 & Deserts) and loved them on gravel,... One trip to Marocco, other to Polar Circle in Lapland.

Next trip we are planning is Syria and Jordan. We have two weeks to cover these countries.
For my girlfriend this will be her first 'big trip'. We have done a month around Spain last year. And we (both!) enjoyed about 300k's of gravel roads. This was a first time for my girlfriend on her F650 GS going on dirt. We had Metzeler Endurance tires. Still she really enjoyed it. Her grandfater would take her to motorcross meetings...

If we have to I can plan the whole trip on tarmac. But as in Spain it is sometimes simply too tempting. I feel that if we go on dirt roads in Syria / Jordan we will need to be able to count on those tires. More then in Spain.

So.... what choice should we make?
The total k's wont exceed 12000.

Options I see:
* go both on serious Deserts and know that they will last for ever and always on dirt roads. But keep it easy on tarmac. And even allow me a bit of fun in Wadi Rum. But hope that my girlfriend can get comfortable with the feeling of these tires.
* go both on less 'die hard' knobblies. T63 or Bridgestone trialwing (301 -302) are options.
* go with the Metzeler Tourance's that we are used to and just take it easy on the dirt tracks... But how do you take it easy once you are on dirt tracks... ;-)
* split tire choice. Get Deserts for myself and less extreme ones for my girlfriend.

Who can give us any advice? We wonna be able to travel 'freely', but I don't wonna make it more stressfull for my girlfriend then needed. On the other hand having knoblies might give her just a more comfy feeling on dirt roads...


Who remembers first ecxperiences, what choices should we make? What are do's and dont's?

[This message has been edited by fireboomer (edited 09 March 2005).]